Newsletter

Getting to spend almost two hours talking with Ray Bradbury was more fun than I could have imagined

I read my first Ray Bradbury short story when I was in the sixth grade, and he has been one of my favorite writers ever since. His death at the age of 91 is a loss to me on several levels.

One of my favorite memories is being part of a group that lobbed dozens of questions at Bradbury when he was in Lubbock on March 29, 1992. Our group had brunch with him, and we learned a great deal about Bradbury during the almost two hours we spent with him.

The group included Avalanche-Journal entertainment editor Bill Kerns, me and 25 to 30 local English teachers, including many who had taught students from Bradbury books in their classrooms.

I never did know who organized the brunch. It appeared to have been sponsored by a local book store, which had stacks of Bradbury books -- at least a dozen different titles -- for sale. Those who attended were buying them like crazy, and Bradbury was cheerfully signing them all.

He was in Lubbock to speak to the winners of the Lubbock Arts Festival's Young Authors Competition. Kerns had done a long phone interview with him prior to his arrival and was invited to join the teachers at brunch. Bill, God bless him, knew how much I liked Bradbury and wrangled an invitation for me.

The food was fabulous, and the company... well, the company was Ray Bradbury.

The only regret among the group -- and I know I speak for all of us who were there -- was no one had a tape recorder. The generous amount of time Bradbury spent with us, and the deep, revealing, poignant and often funny answers to our questions were ones we all would have liked to have captured forever.

When the book-signings were completed, Bradbury got a tray and picked out his brunch items. Kerns and I were right behind him, and we hovered around and tried to look casual while Bradbury decided where to sit.

The tables were arranged in a rectangle, and Bradbury sat in the middle of one of the long sides of the rectangle. That was a logical choice because he could be closest to all the members of the group that way.

As soon as he put his tray down and took his seat, I sat down at his immediate right, and Bill at his left. No surprises there -- we were both veteran journalists who were experienced at putting ourselves in the best position for an interview.

The first thing I told Bradbury was how many times in my life he had given me the thrill of reading a good story. I told him how he had stretched my imagination in many of those stories along the way and how he had scared the daylights out of me at other times.

Bradbury laughed heartily at the compliment. So did Kerns, who added words of his own along the same lines, and the great writer was pleased and humble. If the time with Bradbury had ended at that moment, it would have been a great day -- but there was so much more to come.

The tables were starting to fill in fast with teachers. I wasn't sure how much time we would have or how many questions I would get to ask, so I started quickly with a question I had wondered about. I asked him if there was any truth to a story I heard that the legendary EC Comics had adapted his work to comics form in the early 1950s without getting permission.

I could tell by the look on his face I had hit a jackpot with the first question. He seemed surprised to have been asked about it at first. I got the feeling it was one of his favorite stories but not many people had heard about it and ever asked him about it. He smiled broadly and sort of settled back in his seat as if he wanted to get comfortable while he told the tale. He could have answered my question in a sentence or two, but he took his time and told a very detailed, interesting and humorous story that was well-received by the rest of our group.

EC comics, which became legendary in the 1950s for horror and crime comics that alarmed parents and others who thought many of the stories were inappropriate for young readers, also published two excellent science fiction comics called "Weird Science" and "Weird Fantasy." Editor Al Feldstein and publisher William M. Gaines had indeed appropriated some of Bradbury's work, Bradbury said, and had been busted when Bradbury read the comics. They didn't know he read their science fiction comics.

Far from being angry about it, Bradbury was impressed with the quality of the adaptation of his work. He sent Gaines a letter and complimented him on it but said he somehow and inadvertantly had not received his royalty check. (That got a big laugh from our group.) Gaines immediately wrote a return letter, enclosed a royalty check and said they hadn't been sure where to send the check.

That started a friendship, and the comics company adapted many more of Bradbury's stories -- but after that, they had the author's permission and paid him up front for them.

Bradbury talked about his early career, when he didn't own a typewriter. He would go to the library of a local college and use "pay typewriters" that had coin slots on them. The typist would put in a coin and get 30 minutes' use of the electric typewriter. Like a parking meter, the writer had to keep feeding coins into the slot every so often to keep the typewriter working.

One of my favorite stories Bradbury told was about the first time he met Walt Disney. It was during the Christmas season, and Bradbury was shopping in a Los Angeles department store when he saw a little man carrying a stack of boxes that was taller than he was. He recognized the familiar face of the man when he finally saw it. Disney, who hosted his company's television show each week, was very recognizable, and Bradbury introduced himself to Disney.

To his great delight, Disney was familiar with his work and had read "The Martian Chronicles" and other Bradbury stories. The two men began chatting, and Disney invited him to come to his office the next week for lunch.

After lunch, Disney took Bradbury on a tour of Disney Studios and gave the writer some hand-painted animation cels from some of his classic movies. Bradbury told our group he still owned the cels and always would. "They are like the crown jewels to me," he said.

Another fascinating story was about another iconic creator -- Rod Serling, of "Twilight Zone" fame. Bradbury was not happy that some Twilight Zone scripts -- including, I believe, the first Twilight Zone episode ever broadcast -- had similarities to some of his stories. It has been 20 years since that day, and I can't clearly recall all of the details about what Bradbury said, but I am almost certain he said Serling looked at his claims and said he thought he might have subconsciously taken details from some of Bradbury's work he had read years before. I can't say this for sure, but it seems like Bradbury said some sort of restitution was made. Bradbury ended up writing the teleplay for one of The Twilight Zone's best episodes, "I Sing the Body Electric," which was based on Bradbury's story by the same name.

Kerns, being the film expert he is, asked Bradbury about his film work, from writing the screenplay to John Huston's 1956 movie Moby Dick, the one that starred Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, to "Something Wicked This Way Comes," a 1983 Disney Studios movie with a Bradbury screenplay based on his own novel. Walt would have been proud. Bradbury said he absolutely loved Johnathan Pryce's performance as the sinister and creepy Mr. Dark in the latter movie. Bradbury also told about his experience as an uncredited writer on the 1961 John Huston film "King of Kings," which was the story of Jesus Christ.

Bradbury was a devoted father, and he had four grown daughters. As I recall, he said three of them lived very close to him, and the fourth was only a one-hour plane flight away.

And then he said something that changed my life.

He talked about how much he loved his daughters and how delighted he was with the women they became. And then he said, rather wistfully, "I miss my babies, and I miss my little girls. I love who they became, but my babies and little girls are gone."

The room got quiet as the hearts of those of use at the table were touched. Someone asked Bradbury another question about his daughters. He answered the question, and he urged the group (most of whom were of the age to have young children) to enjoy every moment of their children's early lives.

My daughter was 7 months old at the time, and my son was still a year away from being born. But I never forgot what Bradbury said. I savored every moment of my children's childhoods and squeezed the most fun and memories out of every day.

You know what? Like Bradbury, I miss my babies. I miss my little girl and my little boy. But we packed as much fun and special moments into those early years as we possibly could have. Ray Bradbury wasn't the only person who warned me about how fast children grow up, but he was undoubtedly the most famous one. And he was the only one to ever put it in the words of saying "I miss my babies." Thanks for a powerful lesson, Ray.

We had almost two hours with Bradbury, including the book signing, the lunch and the many questions. He opened himself up deeply and revealed quite a bit about himself to us. To a question about his writing style, he said he didn't work with an outline in his head. He liked to sit at the keyboard and just start writing, letting the plot and story develop as he did.

I also recall his telling us Halloween was his favorite holiday. He told us he never missed trick-or-treating -- which he called "tricks and treats," I'm guessing that term might have been a California thing. Every year, he and his daughters would go out trick-or-treating and have a great time, he said. The people in some of the houses knew who he was, but people in many other houses did not. I guess I will always remember that. I have thought of it pretty much every Halloween since and wondered if he was out trick-or-treating that night. I also wondered if the people who didn't know who he was were thinking something along the line of "who is that old guy who is trick-or-treating at our house?" without realizing they had just given a treat to one of the greatest writers in America.

All too soon, our time with Bradbury was over, and he had other places in Lubbock to visit. Some of the teachers were so impressed by the experience they had reached into their purses, took out pen and paper and started taking notes. It was a great experience for all of us, and I got the impression Bradbury was having as much fun chatting with us as we were having chatting with him.

I have read or reread many Bradbury books or stories since, and I have thought of that brunch every single time I did. Getting to spend that much time with a favorite writer was an experience I will never forget.